A detailed contractual definition of 'Practical Completion' listing numerous specific requirements does not convert the obligation to achieve practical completion into multiple obligations of varying importance for the purposes of the penalty doctrine. [name withheld]'s proposition 4(c) from Dunlop (presumption of penalty where a single sum is payable on several events of varying seriousness) does not apply to liquidated damages clauses triggered by failure to achieve practical completion in building contracts. The discretion given to an independent certifier in the general paragraph of a practical completion definition may be read distributively across subsequent specific paragraphs, such that trivial defects will not prevent certification. Escalating daily rates of liquidated damages proportioned to the period of delay are not inherently penal.
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